Apr 09 2012

Retweets and Retweets: Knowing the Difference

With Twitter’s introduction last year of a more official method of retweeting, there has been ongoing confusion concerning what exactly the difference is between the traditional retweet of a Twitter post and the newer RT method.

While it’s not difficult to find value in the new method introduced by the Twitter team, the use of the community-created term “retweet” has blurred the lines between the two to the point of leaving users unsure which is the best method to use when sharing others’ content within their stream.

Let this handy infographic and associated outline help to clear up the confusion!

Tip # 1

Traditional user-created retweets are given their own page, making them searchable via the Twitter website and indexable by search engines; the new method offers neither.

Tip # 2

Traditional retweets are credited to both the original creator and the retweeter, giving both exposure, while official retweets credit only the original creator of the content.

Tip # 3

While users are able to add and edit text before retweeting in the original sense, official retweets give you no such ability; the tweet is reposted exactly as it was initially shared.

Tip # 4

Given the purpose of retweeting, no matter the method used, both the traditional and official retweet appear to your entire user stream.

Tip # 5

Crediting multiple users for their contribution or relation to the topic of a tweet is possible only with user-created retweets while official retweets offer a link to only the original author’s Twitter stream.

The Twitter RT versus Retweets infographic is placed through MyBlogGuest Infographics Gallery.

3 Responses to “Retweets and Retweets: Knowing the Difference”

  1. Kristina Weis says:
    April 9, 2012 at 8:30 am

    Don’t the newer version of retweets help get tweets in “Top” tweets when people search Twitter?

  2. Brankica says:
    April 9, 2012 at 9:22 am

    Great comparison. I really do prefer the old RT where I can edit the tweet if needed, add a note of my own or just thank the original poster. I think I only used the new Twitter RT like twice and only cause the tweet was very important and I was in too much of a hurry to make the old type RT.

  3. Sherryl Perry says:
    April 9, 2012 at 2:54 pm

    I like the old fashioned RT too. I like to be in control of the words and tweak them a little the same as you Brankica. Sometimes, I end up copying and pasting the tweet into Buffer and tweeting from there. It’s time consuming but I think it’s worth it.